What was the Arab religion before Islam?

Answer 1

I believe it was Pagans. There were Jewish, Christians, and Hindus living together in that region. Judaism is the original religion which Christianity and Islam came from it.

They worship idols, they had 360 status representing a God for each day of the year, until Muhammad came and broke all of them down, and told his people they should worship just one of them and that was Allah.

Answer 2

All of the above. Our main source for the pre-Islamic beliefs of the Arabs of the Hijaz (the area around Mecca and Medina) is the Qur'an, because archeology in that region is not far advanced. The Qur'an seems to have a mixed viewpoint on this: it accuses the people of Mecca of being polytheists (as does Muslim tradition), but at the same time it is absolutely clear that they are familiar with the stories of the Old Testament, and of the life of Jesus. Some scholars think that most Muslims were at least semi-Judaised and Christianised. The strong influence of Judaism and Christianity on Islam supports this theory. Probably none were Zoroastrian - the Zoroastrian influence on Islam comes only with the expansion of the Empire into Persia and Iraq. There are a few other sources, such as the Arabic poems hung in the shrines of various gods, and some lingering traditions, such as the veneration of stones and the names of female goddesses preserved in the Qur'an, which make it clear that the earlier religious traditions of the western Arabs had not been forgotten, although there is no reason to think that these were the most important aspects of religion in the Hijaz in the lifetime of the Prophet. The matter is further confused by the question of what kind of society predominated in this region at the time. Until recently it was assumed that the Hijaz was a major thoroughfare for traders and goods, which would bring all manner of religions from the Near East into the region, creating a cultural and religious melting-pot. This now seems unlikely: most scholars tend to think that the Hijaz was something of a backwater, which may have been reached by a few heretical Christians and Arab Jews, but which was probably not the vibrant cosmopolitan centre previously believed. This makes it more difficult to understand just how Islam emerged - it is still a question that is very much up in the air. It is one of the most hotly contested questions in Early Arabic Studies. Unfortunately, this question has become vexed in some quarters, because evangelical Christians see it as an opportunity to argue that the god of Islam is simply a manifestation of a pre-Islamic moon-god. This is simply unprovable (and most of the evidence mustered to demonstrate it is laughably bad) , and moreover it misses the point: that the coming of Islam was a point of radical discontinuity with pre-Islamic religions, whatever those religions might have been. Muhammad and his followers saw themselves as making a clean and violent break with the past, which became known to Muslims as the Jahiliyya - the age of ignorance.

Answer 3

before Islam Arabs were a series of disorganised tribes wondering the deserts/living around the deserts, trading and the like for the most part.

Their religion was based around the worship of spirits in objects such as trees, mountains, stones and idols.

As with many primitive religions, there was no formal priest hood and the ideas/beliefs varied between tribes.

Some Arabs were christian and the like close to the foundation of Islam, but for the most part prior to being organised by the Islamic laws and structures they were not payed too much attention to my major civilisations.

Answer 4

Gug was practiced throughout the middle east prior to Mohamed's revelations and he rise of Islam. Gug was another water god religion which required much human sacrifice to appease the water gods. only females were sacrificed not the warriors. Few artifacts have been found except a huge stone wall on the banks of the Tigrass River with the word "Gug" carved in Greek letters. It was a verbal tradition and few scholars have written anything of this odd and short-lived religion.

Answer 5

Most Arabs were pagans. There was no concept of afterlife, and there were thousands of different deities that people made idols for. The Arabs worshiped idols, a practice which Muhammad brought an end to. There were also a few Christians and Jews around, but they were minorities.

Answer 6

Christianity, Judaism (major influences)
and some other pagan religions apparently (possibly usual roman and greek influencd ones)

Dont forget that Isalm is an ofshoot of christianity, therefore it derived much from christianity first. Also Moses is reported as living with the decendants of Ishmael, and even marrying an arab. They were once simply 'Jews'

Answer 7

Christianity. It was spread throughout that region in the first century. Have a great week.
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Answer 8

It didn't exist until muhammad made it up, and conducted the first muslim "jihad" in the history of the religion. What a guy.

Answer 9

majority were pagans but there were some Jewish tribes scattered around Arabia.

Answer 10

They were pagans who should to bury their daughters and do other sorts of idol worshipping.